Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, June 25: Ministry of Railways has revised and amended Refund Rules in a very comprehensive manner and notified them which shall come into force with effect from July 1, 2013.
The amendments made in the Refund Rules are aimed at simplification, efficiency in processing and reduction of bogus refund claims.
Railway Passengers (Cancellation of ticket and Refund of fare) Rules, 1998 have not been substantially revised in the last 15 years during which period a large number of changes have taken place in the ticketing system of Indian Railways.
Firstly, Computerised Passenger Reservation System (PRS) as well as Computerised Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) have proliferated. Reservation through internet has also been introduced through which 45% of the total reserved tickets are issued. Integrated Train Enquiry System-139 is functional, through which ticket status can be obtained through SMS. The above developments warranted that the refund rules be revised comprehensively.
The major changes in the existing rules and the amendments in refund rules have been made, which Pertained to unused (unreserved) tickets on which no reservation has been made; Unused tickets on which reservation has been made, unused waitlisted or RAC tickets Cancellation of e-tickets; and Refund on Tatkal tickets; as also, Non-commencement or missing of journey due to late running of trains, lost, misplaced, torn or mutilated tickets; and application for refund of Passenger Reservation System (PRS) tickets in other circumstances.
For refund of fare under circumstances other than those specified in these rules or under circumstances like ‘bandh’ or agitations or floods, etc., the passengers could not reach the reservation counter or station or current counters for cancellation of tickets, in those cases, a TDR shall be issued to the passenger and the passenger may apply for refund of fare within ten days instead existing 90 days from the day of commencement of journey to the Chief Commercial Manager (Refunds) of the railway administration under whose jurisdiction the TDR issuing station comes, enclosing the original TDR. The TDR shall be issued only upto three days instead of existing 30 days after the scheduled departure of the train.
Follow our WhatsApp channel